Horror Show Sunday: Negligence in Sex Crimes

This is the kind of thing that we need to see more often, I think that if we started seeing cases like this popping up, we’d finally see the church taking sex abuse seriously. On February 17, 2013, an 8-year old retarded boy told his mother that a volunteer at the Willow Creek Community Church near Chicago, Robert Sobczak Jr., had sexually molested him. According to church officials, Sobczak worked with the “Special Friends” program and it was their policy that children, which included developmentally disabled and other special needs children, were supposed to be under the supervision of at least two caregivers at all times.

Sobczak was immediately arrested and it later came to light that another boy at the church was likely also molested, and another autistic boy at another location not associated with the church. This is all unfortunately all too common, especially among Catholics, but as we see here, not limited to them. What is not common is the authorities started to ask themselves when the church knew what was going on and whether they failed in their responsibility to supervise Sobczak and their “Special Friends” program. There is currently an investigation and a lawsuit filed against the church for failing to keep these kids safe.

I really don’t understand how parents can hand over their kids to any religious organization today, considering the number of molestation cases in the news every single day. It’s not like they can’t be aware that there is a problem, any more than churches can’t be aware that there are predators in their midst. For all the rules and regulations that churches set up to cover their asses, how many times are these rules completely ignored because nobody is checking up? If the rule says two people must always be present, who is checking up to make sure that’s actually happening? Who is verifying that you don’t have two pedophiles in the classroom that are acting together? Seriously, what church isn’t putting cameras into the room to make sure that nothing wrong is going on? The problem is that bad and I think that any organization, religious or otherwise, that isn’t taking extraordinary steps to ensure that the children under their care are being protected from predators has no business being in operation at all. We need to hold the administration and the clergy of these churches accountable for the things that go on under their roof. They know there’s a problem. Now it’s their job to take care of the problem, no matter what it takes.

That’s the only way these issues are going to go away and I won’t have to write about it so much on Horror Show Sunday.

12 thoughts on “Horror Show Sunday: Negligence in Sex Crimes”

These stories are a horror, and the issue of sexual abuse does need to be dealt with. But when it's done in a Christian setting it's in violation of those teachings. It's not because they are Christians, but because they are failed Christians. So, why blame the religion?

The problem is that Churches are meant to be a safe place, they are meant to be run by moral people, they are meant to be many things. However, they continually fail. Then when a sex offender acts, they are forgiven and reinstated. After all, God forgives . This is not the way you solve problems.

In contrast, in schools these teachers will go to jail and never work in schools ever again.
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But Roger this guy will not be re-employed by the schooling system. This guy will not be forgiven and told to teach again, or worse be hidden in another school for it all to happen again.

This sentence is bad I agree. Not sure I understand it myself, also the judge has tried to change the sentence twice. Its not that they are just letting this slide.
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Contributors don't pay in those diocese, it creates a cash crunch. They don't have the funds and are forced into bankruptcy. The Catholic church does not like outsiders looking into their books and deciding how to pay creditors.

Well sure, they don't want anyone knowing how much money they have. They sure have tons of real estate though that they could sell to pay settlements, they don't want to do that though, it cuts into their ability to make more money.

My thinking was on this exact same topic after listening to one of the latest Bitchspot Reports. It amazing that these churches are not being held accountable when they are hiring known sex offenders. Its like dieting, if a person you know is on a diet you do not offer cookies to that person.
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